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Survival Phrases in Nagamese: the Lingua Franca of Nagaland

Written and compiled by A. Avtans[This article is copyrighted, please mention author’s name and article’s name when you are copying/referring content from this page]

Nagaland in the north eastern frontiers of India is a linguist’s paradise where not less than 23 different indigenous languages are spoken in full vigor. Though English is the official language in Nagaland, It is Nagamese (a pidgin/creole arising out of Assamese, Hindi, English and various Naga languages) which rules the roost across the state. Though the origin of Nagamese is unknown, it is evident from the accounts of Lt. Bigges (Tour Diary 1841) that this pidgin was in vogue before the British soldiers set their feet in the Naga Hills. The earliest record of Nagamese is found in Hutton (1921) with a few lexical items and phrases in the pidgin. Hutton (1921) says

‘the Assamese as spoken in the Naga Hills is peculiarly well adapted for the reproduction of Naga idioms as a vehicle of interpretation. It makes a better lingua franca for the Hills than Hindustani or English would, the substitution of which for Assamese has been occasionally suggested.’

Hutton is referring to Nagamese when he is writing of Assamese of Naga Hills. Similarly Haimendorf (Von Furer Haimendorf, The Naked Nagas, 1939, London) writes

‘Fortunately many people including children spoke fluently Nagamese, the lingua franca of entire Naga Hills’.

The spread of Nagamese according to Sreedhar (M.V. Shreedhar, 1985, Standardized Grammar of Naga Pidgin, Mysore) is due to several factors. He cites the construction of roads, penetration of Marwari traders in far flung areas, and various state and central agencies bringing Non-Nagas in Nagaland as the primary reason for the spread of Nagamese. It is absolutely clear that neither colonization nor subjugation was responsible for the birth of Nagamese.

Today Nagamese is used for diverse inter-lingual communication situations such as Schools, markets, hospitals, legislative assembly, and even in churches. Moreover the emergence of a unified Naga identity irrespective of tribal affiliations has led to situations where it has acquired the role of a mother tongue for the children born out of wedlock of people from two different communities. Nagamese is increasingly used in informal conversation though formal discourse is still done in English or any other indigenous language. Youth use it profusely among themselves on the streets of Kohima, Dimapur, Mokukchung and outside Nagaland etc.

Knowing a little of Nagamese in Nagaland comes handy when one decides to visit this beautiful state in the Far East. Nagamese is like a song you would like to sing time and again.

Thanks Mat
For visiting my blog
I am sorry I cannot help you much in this regard.
I will suggest you to learn more Nagamese from the book I have mentioned here-
Dr. N. Khashito Aye’s book titled Nagamese: the Lingua Franca of Nagaland, 2007 (published by Christian Education Ministry, Sugar Mill, 5th Mile, Dimapur- 7977112, Nagaland
You can buy this book by writing a letter to him.
Also take a look athttp://www.ciil-grammars.org/naga/index.asp
For this you need to sign up here
All the best !

Hi, i did a lot of researches before finding your blog which helped a lot to learn few Nagamese words. Thank you very much Abhishek for your great support. I’m french and just got back from Nagaland after wonderful and memorable weeks of discovery. Still want to learn more about languages …. i’ll follow your advice for that. Best continuation, i’ll visit again soon
Best wishes 🙂

@Dee
I have as much knowledge of Nagamese as you have!
The better person to ask would be a person belonging to Nagaland
Whatever I have written here is from asking Native Nagamese Speakers or from Books
I understand your need but I am unable to Help

Abhishek jee,
I was born and bought up in Dimapur Nagaland.
I grew up learning
Nagamese: The lingua Franca,
Nepali: The Mother Tongue,
English; the medium of instruction,
Hindi: the language spoken in Doordarshan. DD1 and DD2.
So all this languages are Dear to me.

Hi! I do not understand any Indian language. I was hoping you could help me decipher a text my friend sent me in his native tongue some months ago. He wouldn’t translate it for me, & all I ever found on my own was ‘apooni’, which means ‘you’. Much later, I learned that the text is in Nagamese, but by then, I was already too exhausted to search for what it meant.

I’m still regularly in touch with him, but we never talked about it again. I figured it might just have been a gibberish prank intended to keep me curious. But for some reason, I remembered it today, & came across this site. I found some words through it as possible translations, although the spelling slightly varied.

“aji apooni beishi kooshi paishe tee

to kinika apooni ki kuobo na”

I would really appreciate it if you could enlighten me on what he was trying to tell me (but which, at the same time, he didn’t want me to comprehend).

Wow! I guess my friend was just really playing with my mind. He gave me the impression that it was a “super secret plan” back then. But since he’s grown to become my most trusted friend & confidant, that plan must haveworked after all. Hahahaha.